Six hundred years before the Prophet Muhammed, the Romans crucified an obscure Jewish preacher as a rabble-rouser. By the time the first Islamic armies rode out of Arabia, his teachings had become the foundation of a world religion… and many of the lands which we consider Islamic strongholds were devoutly Christian. The Q'uran preaches tolerance for Christians and considers them, like Jews, to be "People of the Book." In practice, Christians have not always fared so well among Moslems. Despite Muhammed's express prohibitions against "conversions by the sword," throughout history many Arabic-speaking Christians have been faced with a choice between apostacy and martyrdom. Others have been driven from their ancestral homes by persecution. Here are a few predominantly Moslem countries with substantial Christian populations.
|
|